Hi Fellow DM's!

Could use some help from more experienced DM's who have runned SKT. Please let me paint the picture (will not include all details of SKT) 

(english is not my native language so sorry for the spelling)

- My question is: how can I involve and get the players to buy into their role of importance in this massive conflict?

I'm relatively new to D&D and have been playing for two years now and am now running my second adventure. First one that I provided for the players was out of the abyss, and now I'm running - as the topic title shows - Storm King's Thunder and to be honest, I feel challenged. This adventure story book is so much wider that it's somewhat overwhelming compared to out of the abyss.

History so far:

My basic approach to DM'ing this is that I prepared 'the grand scheme' of things, including the cause, the current status, the ordning, the giant leaders and their individual goals, locations etc. Then I threw them into a one-shot - which was also used in a local game store to recruit some new adventurers - I basicly skipped chapter 1.

Why? Because I needed a one-shot, me and my friends played chapter 1 before and to be honest - I don't see the added value to spending so much time there. I used the NPC's mentioned and the storyhook for them to meet Zephyros who came in crashing down in his cloud castle as some cultists caused his navigational orb to falter. Giving a hint of what's going on and using Zephyros's 'contact other planes' trying to engage the players into their epic role of this story. 

Second session was spent playing out the encounters in Zephyros's castle (also the people getting to know eachoters play style a bit better) after which they decided to move to Triboar based upon some personal story hooks I gave them (they had option to go to either one but this is what was the result of their role-play). They spent a session here, getting involved with the locale and following-up on one of the personal story-hook of one of them which includes the Zentharim. This led to many questions from the other players on allegiances.

The next two sessions where spent playing out the attack on Triboar, man this battle is BIG! And it involved a lot of maps I printed out with detailed sequencing of the attackers trying to burn down the village as a distraction to get the Fragment. The party was unable to stop the Giants (one-hitting players when they got in their way) but managed to save most of the NPC's and the village from burning down. They also tamed an Axebeak which is fun to play out, and with Tongues where able to get the name of the Firegiant's stronghold (Ironslag), but not the location. Progress was made bringing them together as they were confronted with this major challenge. However, when presented with the follow-up quests they were still questioning why 'they' were tasked to persue this. 

They took up the quest from Darathra to inform the harpers (one of the adventurers being a Harper helps) and are making their way towards Everlund. In this journey I presented "The Old Tower" encounter, but due the role-playing element they managed to upset and anger the hill giant. Instead of fighting her, they choose to flee and persue their original quest.

I questioned after the session, was this to save their skin or is there still no sense of urgency?

Now - last session - they arraived in Yartar and the Harper agent adventurer goes looking for fellow faction agents. Long story short, he finds the Villa. I thought it makes sense to drop a hint last session to urge them onwards, using an element of his background story (the Harper Agent who recruited him) to send him a message. Revealing to him the teleportation circle in the villa and urging him to go there and travel to the moongleam tower as he needs to talk to him. 

How to continue? Advice welcome!

My plan is as follows: they will travel to moongleam tower where they will meet both this Agent and Krowen (part of the SKT NPCs and also a Harper agent). They will reveal more information to the adventurers talking about the 3 attacks that are described, also - depending on their dice roles and questioning - reveal some additional information of the grand scheme. Using the map to point out concentrations of attacks and using Krowen's extended historical knowledge to possibly reveal some details of this conflict. And asking the adventurers questions like: What have you learned in the Triboar attack? Have you seen any activity of Hill Giants traveling here? And I also intend to enable them to learn about:
- What is known / unknown about the different Giants and their goals (very limited, only for the hill giants I will reveal that they are focussing on live stock etc. and that there are hill giants known to grow stronger by consuming large quantities)
- That there might be an even bigger picture "Who benefits from all this?" and if inquired further, Krowen will mention that Dragons and Giants have a long history of conflict
- The level of organization behind the attacks reveals that there must be a chain of command within the Giant races revealing that there are leaders behind this
- The existence of friendly giants, if they question into this, and look into the reports collected in the room they can discover (using one of the adventurers background of Waterdeep) that there are reports of Harshnag and they can find out his 'last known location' by digging through all the reports
- The breaking of the ordening (revealed also by Zephyros) I want to tell again - not sure if it stuck -
- In the conversation I will mention the hampering of trade, treatening the supply of food to the cities and hunger treatening civilization for the upcoming winter (currently fall) to try and tap into their "good" alignments

And last but not least, I want to let them choose. Basicly I want them to define their own role in this and let them take the decision that their talents are crucial in this.

Still I feel I should do more, I've read that people use appearances of bigger evils to build up to the confrontations further down the line, which I like. But what I really need is for them to buy into their role in all this and feel strongly motivated, urgency and 'grande' in all of this. Any tips? Thanks.

Hello and Welcome!

While I enjoy SKT,  it requires a good bit of extra work from the DM. 

First, the overall plot is relatively complicated, and there are few avenues early to clue the characters in.  I recommend exposing the characters at least to some major names early, so that they can then ask questions/search for answers to who those people are.

Second, perhaps more important, is to not actually force the campaign on the players.   Use the middle "sandbox" section as a series of open ended "quests", but try to tie those in to some character backstories and present the ever-present threat of Giants.  Ie,  perhaps a character came from a small town -- have it attacked by giants and have the character find out.  Places the characters have been may end up destroyed or attacked -- use the giant upheaval to provide the pressure in that the world will continue to get worse without intervention. 

Third,  I used a "council" style setting for one session, where the characters were introduced to higher powers, and they then had a choice in their path (as well as learning that higher powers were watching).  The end result of that for my group was to "find Harshnag".

I created  a bunch of "side ideas" during the middle section, but the purpose of those dungeons and encounters was to slowly add background for the players.   Ie establishing barbarian tribes, types of dragons, a dungeon with a "good" stone giant seer.

Also, consider how you are going to play the court intrigue later.  In my case, I thought it was too much so removed a couple of extraneous NPCs. 

Hope some of the above helps, and feel welcome to direct message me so we don't add spoilers.

Hi Koradgee! Thanks for the tips, most things add to what I'm trying to do. I've also spend some extra time in developping the players background stories and have come up with personal dreams, requests, npc's, messages and attacks on their 'parents or friends' hometowns. As I described I am also planning a little 'council' setting with Krowen and one of those background connected NPC's where they will learn a lot. I will definatly use your tip to drop some big names in there - so they can relate once they get there. 

If you or anyone has any more 'generic' tips how to involve, motivate and bring the overal goal to life I'm really hoping that you'll share as I'm still just beginning as a DM I can use your tips :)

Thanks,

You are welcome!  Hope it helped some.

As you mentioned, setting up things like dreams, attacks on home towns etc, begins to make the conflict more personal for the characters.  I used an increase in giant attacks and sightings as a way to add "pressure" so that the characters would realize if they did nothing more bad things would happen. 

It is important to get the players and character's buy in to the story.  A very reasonable question for the characters to ask is: "Why us? Aren't there other heroes that are better equipped to do this?".  Giants are naturally scary monsters and generally difficult,   experienced players will generally try to avoid them if possible (or maybe find the "weakest" giants).

The "council" I set up was with higher powers (ie rulers of cities/areas), or higher powered beings that were watching the unfolding conflict. You may be able to do this with the Harpers and some of their contacts.   They had summoned the characters because the characters were some of the early ones to have knowledge of this (particularly just after seeing Fire Giants in Triboar and the characters possibly knowing some goals of the fire giants -- they were digging up something).  The characters participated in the discussion and while the higher powers pushed them a bit, that was the chance for the characters themselves to buy in, understand the scope of the problem, and begin a heroes journey. Also, if they fixed it --- there could be future reward/recognition.   This also setup the possibilities of allies for the finale.  

There was a side quest I enjoyed, and that was a barbarian tomb on a mountainside.  A small village beneath it had been attacked by stone giants.   The tomb itself had a stone giant seer who had been meditating, as the seer wanted to avoid the conflict.   The stone giant leader had sent giants to turn or destroy the seer. That gave the characters more backstory and the hope that not all giants were evil.  The characters found out about this as they saw villagers on a road, fleeing towards triboar or yartar.

Hope that helps some!

Yes this is very valuable, thanks a lot! I will make the council a part of a council which is reaching out to them. I think a council of faction leaders had been made aware of their importance and this is their way of reaching out to them.